A visit home
by Charlie FP
Summary: Theseus is about to tell everyone he is engaged to Leta, who he's been dating for three years though no one knows about it. How will everyone and, more importantly, Newt, react?


It was in late June 1927 that Newton Artemis Fido Scamander finally managed to return to his family's estate in the English countryside since the death of his parents and his expulsion from Hogwarts in the autumn of 1913. He'd hardly seen his siblings since then. His older brother would go fight in the war not long after in the war and had managed to convince someone to accept him in a dragon handlers program on the eastern front. His sister was still in Hogwarts and it had been decided that the school would be transferred in America until the end of the war. In fact, after he shipped off to the dragons he hadn't seen his sister nor his brother until the end of the war. He'd written regularly to his brother, but he could rarely afford the fees for an intercontinental owl.

"This is it : Scamander estate," said Newt turning to Tina and Queenie. "It doesn't look like much, but we call it home. Let's go inside, my brother should be there already and he does get impatient."

"They followed him inside the house and through the kitchen, then the empty dining room and then, finally into the living room where one man concentrated on a newspaper while a woman, probably his sister from the fact that she looked like a female version of him, was siting, relaxed, reading a book. When they heard the newcomers enter the room, both of them got up. The woman, nearer to the door than her brother, turned towards them and her face lit up with an amused smile.

"Newt!"

"Hello Arya." Answered the magizoologist "How long has it been since I've seen you?"

"I think it was Christmas 1918, so nearly nine years." thought the young woman out loud as an answer to her brother.

"And it is time that this changes Newton Scamander!" reproached the man, towering over his younger brother.

"Hi there brother!" Answered Newt, in front of his imposing brother "I guess congratulations are in order."

"Thanks Newt. And thanks for coming."

"Yes. Well, as you say, I should be home more often."

"And this is," continued Newt, turning around to were Tina and Queenie had been standing a second earlier "Well, I see that you've made acquaintance with Tina and Queenie, Arya."

"Ary and Queenie met in America when we were in school, they've been keeping in touch ever since." Explained Tina, finding quite funny that neither her nor Queenie had figured out that Arya Scamander and Newt Scamander were more than only distantly related.

"So you are the reasons Arya's got two owls?"

"Yes, they are part of it." Answered the Scamander woman. "I spent four years of my life with Queenie in school and, when Hogwarts returned to the castle, we kept in touch. We visit each other sometimes too you know."

"They usually see each other once a year actually." Added Tina.

"She's right. Ary visited us for a week last November and the year before I visited Ary for a week in September."

"You were in New York in November last year Arya?"

"Yes. I missed Newt by a few weeks."

"That was dangerous. Do you ever read the papers? Do you not have any sense of preservation?"

"I am a Scamander AND a Gryffindor. This generation of Scamander doesn't have a sense of preservation and Gryffindors don't usually back off from seeing friends because of a 'danger'."

"I guess you're right, for the Scamander part anyway, I never really understood how a Scamander could become a Gryffindor."

"I'm Theseus Scamander, by the way." Continued the older of the Scamander siblings seeing that none of the younger two new how to properly introduce the two Americans to him since they both knew them.

"I'm Tina –"

"Goldstein?" said someone behind the sisters with an authoritarian voice, making Tina turn around.

"Director Graves." Answered Tina, instantly tenser.

"They know each other too?" Theseus them heard himself thinking out loud.

"Well, this is awkward. Is there anyone else that's coming that we know from elsewhere?"

"Well, now that you mention it…" started Theseus with a guilty look on his face, "you're the only one I've told about her."

"The ONLY ONE? Please tell me you mean one of the two."

"I haven't told anyone else. You know I'm not good with these kinds of things."

"Well then, diner's gonna be interesting."

"Would anyone care to explain what is going on?" asked one of the men who had come in the room with Graves.

"Newt just arrived with his friends" started Theseus, regaining his standing "and it turns out Arya knows them from back when Hogwarts students were sent to Ilvermorny for protection during the war. Then, you guys came in and it turns out that Percy's Tina's boss."

"Would you all terribly mind if I took Queenie and gave her a tour of the estate?"

"Would you mind taking Tina along, I don't want to be rude, but I really need to go check on my creatures."

"Not at all, I'd be pleased to oblige. Let's go." As soon as she had spoken, Arya made her way out of the house, quickly followed by Queenie and Tina.

"Do you know who she is?" asked Arya once they were out of earring of her brothers and Theseus' friends.

"Who's who?" Said Tina, the only one of the three woman not gifted in legilimency.

"Theseus is getting married and that's what he'll announce tonight."

"Oh. But then, don't his friends know who she is?"

"They don't have a clue about who she is. They've been dating for three years, but no one other than me knows who she happens to be. Not even Newt! And Tease knows he still feels something for her."

"Theseus is going to marry Leta Lestrange. Leta bloody Lestrange!" continued Arya, outraged.

"Leta Lestrange? The girl Newt has a picture of in his cabin?"

"The very one, yes. And she's going to be here tonight and no one knows about it. Well except me and you now."

"Merlin! That can't be good."

"Exactly. The worst is that Theseus seems to think that only because he sees that she's not like her family and because he's the head Auror, all his friends are just gonna be quite alright with it all and forget everything about her family and her own questionable ways. The problem in his reasoning is that the only two Hufflepuffs here are Theseus and Newt."

"What's a Hufflepuff?"

"Hufflepuff is a house in Hogwarts. You have Horned-Serpent, Thunderbird, Puckwudgie and Wampus; we have Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. I'm a Gryffindor, Theseus and Newt are Hufflepuffs, Leta is a Slytherin and Theseus' friends are Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. Slytherin doesn't have a good reputation and they usually stick to themselves while the other houses mingle together.

"So, you are afraid of what will happen tonight when Theseus tells them he's getting married to one of them?"

"Not necessarily one of them, but a Lestrange. I wouldn't be worried if he was about to tell them he's about to marry someone from Slytherin whose family is unknown or whose family isn't known for their extremist ideas about muggles and muggleborns. I wouldn't be worried if he was about to tell them he's going to marry Leta if they knew they'd been dating for three years and I would be worried if the situation was the same as it is now but Leta wasn't a Slytherin."

"I mean" continued Arya "I don't think anything real bad is going to happen tonight with Tease's friends, but what about Newt? What about the relationship between my two brothers? Tease thinks that it will mend whatever is broken, but I think it will only break something that won't be mendable after tonight."

"Do you really think that your brothers won't talk to each other anymore?"

"I think it's a probability. I hope not, but I don't have my hopes very high."

"You should not worry so much" Said Queenie, trying to reassure her friend. "You'll still have us."

"That brings me on another matter." continued Queenie, turning to her sister, silently asking her to leave.

"I'll go check on Newt." Answered Tina.

"So" Said Queenie once they were alone, "I think I've met THE one. The only problem is that he's a No-maj."

"Oh Queenie," Said Arya, unsure if she was supposed to be happy or sad for her friend "I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. I'm happy about it. I think it made me open my eyes about my country. I want to emigrate with him."

"Does he know about it?"

"We've talked. He knows that we can't be together if we stay in America, and he knows, as well as I do, that, if we stay in America, we risk being discovered which would mean being obliviated for him and prison and a heavy fine for me."

"And Tina doesn't know about this?"

"No. And she can't know. I know how she feels about the law and she would obliviate him if she found out. She might not report me, but I don't know. She's still on probation for her job and she's weird; it's changed her, loosing her job, and I don't know if it's a good thing."

"Queenie, you know, whatever happens, my door is always opened."

"It's good to have a friend like you."

"Just promise me one thing : If and when you move to England don't wait 'till the day of the departure to tell Tina you're leaving. I understand that you won't be able to tell her that you are emigrating, but make sure she knows you're at least going away."

"I'll tell her before it's too late. Don't worry."

"We should be going back. I don't want to miss Leta getting here."

"What?"

"Yes. It should be fun, just seeing their faces when they realise it or see what they think about it, if they don't use occlumency like they usually do."

"Newt doesn't use occlumency."

"No, but I don't want to known how he'll feel when he sees her. I'll still be looking out, just in case."

"Did Theseus ask you to do it?"

"No. He thinks everything is going to be fine."

"Let's hope it will. For your brother's sake anyway."

"Yes."

"How long have you known all of your brother's friends?"

"As long as I've known my brother, except Graves, I met him during the war, he stayed at Tease's house one summer at one point, the others too. I think Theseus was using his house as some sort of base. The only room that wasn't a war room was my bedroom and he sent me there all the time so he could prepare the battles and stuff."

"It must have made for nice summers." Said Queenie, sarcastically.

"I didn't know anything else. When I talked with you or my other friends, you told me about how your aunts or your parents always told you what to do, but I didn't have that. Not until the summer of 1919 and then I was an adult. There was authority when Theseus was there, but he was almost never there. Most of the time, it was me myself and I and, since it was a wizards house, I did magic though I wasn't supposed to."

"Naughty girl."

"There was one thing I hated about it all, but I didn't say anything at the time; my brother didn't have a clue I was a legilimen until my seventh year of school. It made for an interesting Christmas."

"You mean that you saw what he was thinking about during your stays at his house during the war?"

"Yep. I was sure he new about it, but it turned out he didn't and once he found out he felt soooo bad."

"They didn't tell him, your school?"

"They told my parents, before they died, but they never realised my brother didn't know about it. So he only found out when they sent him a letter talking about it before my last Christmas while I was at Hogwarts. The worst was that he new Occlumency, like all of them. And none thought about using it when I was around and they had guards around the place so they knew if an enemy was too close to them to gain access to their thoughts while here."

The two friends then made their way back to the house and, before, they went in, Queenie made Arya promise her that she wouldn't utter a word to neither Tina nor Newt about her project of emigrating. They then entered the house, and went to the living room, where Theseus had ordered everyone to stay until his fiancée's arrival. Realising that her older brother would ask her and Newt to come and, in Newt's case, officially meet the future Mrs Leta Scamander before the others, Arya stayed near Newt, but she hardly had time to mentally prepare before they all heard a faint "pop" and Theseus greeting someone at the door.

"Let me get my brother and sister." They heard the man say, "Arya, would you come here with Newton please."

"Yes." Answered the young woman, following her other brother outside the room, into the dining room and in the kitchen where Newt suddenly froze in his steps, looking at Leta, who hadn't changed since he'd last seen her, more than ten years earlier.

"Arya, Newton,'' Started Theseus, completely oblivious to his brother's state of mind, "meet my fiancée, Miss Leta Lestrange. Leta, I think you know my sister Arya and my brother Newton."

"Of course. Hello Arya, Newton." Noted Leta.

"Leta." Noted Arya back before her brother simply greeted her with a distancing "Miss Lestrange."

"Should we go back to the living room?" suggested Arya, eager to get out of the cold atmosphere slowly falling down on the kitchen then following Newt, who'd welcome the suggestion and exited the room without saying a word.

When they got to the living room a second later, Arya realised they were not followed by Theseus and Leta and everyone was staring at her and Newt, who looked like he'd seen a ghost.

"Did we hear properly?" Asked Elgar Longbottom, voicing everyone's thoughts "Theseus is going to marry Leta Lestrange?"

"He is!" Answered Arya, forcing Newt in a seat with Tina's help.

As she was turning to Queenie to consult with her on what she was starting to feel from the others, both of the legilimen felt two minds getting closer and they retreated to a corner of the room, near where Tina and Newt were, to listen to the others' thoughts.

Arya and Queenie looked at each other feeling Newt's distress and Tina's concern for Newt. From what she could understand of Queenie, Arya realised that the American had not figured out, until now, how strong her sister's feelings towards Newt were. Leaving Newt's mind alone in order to check Theseus's friends for the wellbeing of her brother, Arya started to look at her fellow Gryffindors first. Elgar Longbottom was angry but figured that he out to give the woman a chance and Edwin March decided that he out to stick to his friends, however stupid and reckless their ideas. On his side, Anvers Burbage felt deeply betrayed by one of his best mates for his family was in the middle of a very public feud with the Lestranges since the head of the family had decided to end rather abruptly what had been a long lasting business partnership because of a squib, Anvers' brother. The man felt wronged, so much so that he considered aparating away to show his disapproval. The other two Hogwarts alumni presents were Ravenclaws, Jasper Hickson and William Bones; both had been bullied by Leta's older brother during their Hogwarts years but figured that they should trust their friend.

Happy that her brother would not be left alone by at least four of his school mates, Arya turned her attention to Percival Graves and quickly realised that the man had his reserves about the witch in front of them for he knew most of her family were proud supporters of Grindelwald. He had never seen anyone other than Gellert Grindelwald himself during his imprisonment, but he had heard names and at least two Lestrange men were guards where he'd been kept. Because of that, when he'd first heard the name of his friend's fiancée, he'd almost cast a charm to protect himself but had decided otherwise when he realised that nobody had been cursed.

The next morning, when the guest got downstairs, none of them dared to go out of the living room. The Scamander siblings and Leta had been the first ones to get up. Miss Lestrange had tried to talk to Newt and make some kind of peace but, if the sounds coming from the rest of the house were any clue, it had failed terribly. The living room door might have been closed, but it was not sound proof and every guest could hear the heated discussion between the three Scamander siblings.

"She's trying to mend things with you Newton, can't you see that?" Was saying Theseus, angry.

"There's nothing to mend anymore."

"Your face tells a different story. Tell him Arya."

"Don't you bring me into that Theseus, I told you to tell Newt earlier."

"Oh come on, when should I have told him? When I asked him to be here? Newt would have never come this weekend."

"How do you know that Theseus? You don't seem to know a lot of things at the moment. I would probably have come had I been given a choice, but, as usual, you didn't give me a choice. I'm not a child anymore and I can decide for myself."

"Then why don't you accept that Leta is trying to mend things between you and try to accept that she will be a part of this family, whether you like it or not. Whatever happened at Hogwarts between the two of you : it's over! It was more than ten years ago. Let it go, move on and get over it

"I had gone over it long before today Theseus, but I haven't forgiven her. I never forgave Leta. Now she shows up, she wants to 'mend things' and you want me to simply 'let it go'? I was expelled from Hogwarts because of your sorry excuse for a human being of a fiancée-"

"Take back your words!"

"No! I will not! And let me finish!"

"I will not stand here listening to this nonsense Newton. You know as well as I do that Leta has nothing to do with your expulsion from Hogwarts. If you'd listened to Mother and Father and left your damn monsters away, where they couldn't harm anyone you would have your N.E.W.T.s today!"

"You are right. I am the only reason I got expelled: If I'd never befriended Leta I would have my N.E.W.T. s by now, but that jarvey was never mine."

"What?" asked Theseus, completely taken aback, turning to where his brother had been standing a second before, "Newt?" he now turned to his sister "Where is he?"

"I don't know where he went."

"But he was there a second ago?" asked Theseus, thinking his senses might have failed him.

"He apparated; I don't know where."

"... but I know what he meant though."

"What? You know what happened between Newt and Leta?"

"No. But I know about the jarvey thing."

"And you never told me?" Sais Theseus to his sister, leaving his brother voice and taking his head Auror voice. "... Arya, tell me whose jarvey it was." It wasn't just a request, it was an order.

"You don't want to know Tease." Answered the young woman, seeing in his thoughts what he wanted to do to the person who hadn't spoken up when his brother had been expelled in their place.

"Let me be the judge of that." Retorted the man.

"The jarvey was mine." Then said Leta storming in the room, causing Theseus and Arya to turn to her and see that there seemed to be no emotion in her face.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Theseus?" asked Arya after her brother had opened and closed his mouth three times.

"Go…away…"

Arya then moved to apparate out of the room, but her brother stopped her with his arm.

"Not you Ary."

Understanding what Theseus had meant, Leta then herself apparated away as the man crashed in his young sister's arms, in front of his friends.

* * *

 **DO YOU WANT ME TO CONTINUE THIS STORY? Tell me in the comments please.**


End file.
